Children in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Disruptions and Opportunities

Abstract

AbstractThis comment on the contributions to this volume, dedicated to children’s perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifies some transversal topics that are covered by the authors, namely distance learning, children and social bonding, social distance and construction of the self, and disruption as a chance. Reflecting children’s diverse geographies, these contributions go beyond ideological debates about childhood in the dominant representations of children as vulnerable and incompetent as they reveal both negative and positive impacts of lockdown, like exacerbated inequalities and children’s agency. The phenomenological approach, focusing on children’s understandings of the impact of the pandemic on their subjective well-being, required heightened vigilance about methodological procedures at all stages. This focus on children’s understandings is considered an epistemic opportunity that may favor more child-friendly politics.